NXNE Q&A: Chad VanGaalen

Chad VanGaalen doesn’t play a lot of festivals. The Alberta musician and artist is a homebody, notorious for leaving his Calgary home as infrequently as possible. VanGaalen has a studio in his basement and, although he does leave home sometimes to work on his animation or go for a hike, he rarely ventures far. It may be unorthodox, but it’s a lifestyle that seems to be working for him. VanGaalen released

Diaper Island

, his fourth studio album, on May 17. The album’s lead single,

Peace on the Rise

, is a great ambassador for the album, which is being lauded as VanGaalen’s tightest, most rock and roll sounding release to date.

When he isn’t making music, VanGaalen makes music videos, both for himself and other artists who are into is dark, kind of psychadelic animation style. The

Post

caught up with VanGaalen a few weeks ago to talk

Diaper Island

.

Q:

I read that you actually recorded 80 songs. Is that true?

A:

Yeah, I think that was the number on the count on the CD I gave to Ian at the time. But as I say, that’s been over two years worth of material.

Q:

So how did you choose the songs for this album?

A:

I basically bounced them off of people until everybody was happy. I’m pretty bad at judgment calls as far as what fits together. I think I’m pretty notoriously bad at doing that, so, I feel like it definitely feels like a record but, yeah, it wasn’t necessarily what I had in mind – what I originally started to record, or even think about a new album.

Q:

And how long did the album take?

A:

Well, the album was kind of weird because it went through so many phases. There were like three failed records before this one came out.

Q:

What did you think it would look like?

A:

I had no idea. Actually, I kind of went into it thinking it would maybe be only four or five songs, maybe more experimental, sort of, soundscapey things. Then, out of that, I really started loving the idea of putting out just an electronic album. But then that was, that ended up sounding really really bad. Then I kind of stripped it down to a really simple folk record. The folk record didn’t work just because it was a little bit to boring and then there was a kind of really rough sketch of a garage rock record, and that’s what

Diaper Island

came out of — a few of those songs that I’d decided to rework just because they sounded too lo-fi, just because I kind of got lazy and decided to press play-record on whatever. But I like the idea of a few of the songs kind of being the meat and potatoes of a record, so I kind of went from there.

Q:

How do you feel about the album, now that it’s finished and out there?

A:

I feel okay about it. I finished it a long time ago so it seems like it’s been over for a long time, so, it’s always kind of weird when the release date comes around and you’re like, “Oh yeah. I’ve got to deal with this thing again.” I’m definitely excited about the video, though, probably more than anything else. I definitely focused myself in on that one item moreso than the rest of the record in general.

Q:

Which came first, the music or the animation?

A:

Well, I’ve been drawing ever since I was a kid. Drawing is my favourite thing to do. I’m never going to get bored of it, whereas with music and animation it’s all about interface. I’m constantly having to turn stuff on or dig through sub-menus or pan stuff, but with drawing it’s just me and the pen. It’s always superior. But I think music came before the animation as far as experimentation goes, and then I got into animating once I got introduced to these place in town called Quick Draw, and they kind of gave me a key to the place. And I just sort of learned how to use on machine that was there and eventually I did a cell animation on 15-millimetre black and white film. I was totally addicted after that.

• Chad Van Gaalen is playing at The Great Hall at midnight on Saturday, June 18.

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